Online photo printing review – part 1

Comparing Adorama, Apple, Costco, Mpix, SmugMug, and Snapfish.

As I mentioned on my previous post, I decided to try-out some online photo printing services to see if I could get better results than the ones I’ve been getting at the local Costco.

In this first part of the review I will summarize my experience with the ordering process, including what print options the different web sites have and the pricing for the basic sizes. This is what I look-out for:

• Cropping: I do not like cropping-out the pictures to make them fit (your photos might not have the same aspect ratio as the paper they are printed on), and I’d rather have some borders on either top/bottom or left/right than lose some of my precious capture!
• Borders: I like white borders on my prints, it looks nice and avoids some fingerprint marks.
• Glossy paper: I prefer glossy since it gives the pictures a lot of depth. Luster (the paper with the grainy texture) is considered more expensive, but I don’t like it that much. Matte is good for framing, but I do that printing myself.
• No color adjustments: I have a profiled monitor, and I want my prints to be as close as possible to what I see, so no automatic color corrections for me, please.
• Profiles: this is a great way to preview how the pictures will look once printed. It’s not going to magically make the pictures good, but you can see how some tonalities will end-up.
• Pricing: well, it just adds up.

I picked 15 pictures with a variety of scenarios, and then proceeded to use the printing services in this chronological order (helps me remember):

Costco: the incumbent

I usually do not use the Costco online service for my prints, but instead I go there myself to upload the pictures, pay, and pick-them up (I did use the online service once but the results were worse for some reason). I use some Photoshop actions to re-size, sharpen, and convert the photos to the corresponding printer profile found in Dry Creek Photo. Pricing is quite good:

• 4×6: $0.17
• 5×7: $0.39
• 8×10: $1.49

Mpix

I read good things about Mpix a while back, so I wanted to try it. Printer profiles are available if you ask them via email, but didn’t request them for this trial.

The web site experience was not very good, actually. Found it slow and clunky. The only option for dealing with photos that don’t fit the correct print format is cropping; you can select which area will be cropped, but cannot specify not to crop. No border options are available, but color correction can be disabled.

I wanted to try their metallic paper but could not figure out how to do it within the same order. Pricing for individual prints is quite steep:

• 4×6: $0.29
• 5×7: $0.99
• 8×10: $1.99
• Shipping: $2.50 for my 16 picture order.

So all in all a disappointing online experience; hopefully the prints will be good.

Apple (via Kodak Easyshare)

Next I wanted to try-out the built-in print service of Aperture 2.0 to see how things turn-out. This should be the same conduit as with iPhoto. So I selected the test pictures, right-clicked and selected ‘Order Prints’, filled-out the form with how many I wanted per size, and voila! This was super-easy.

Unfortunately there are no options but paper size. Pricing was not bad though:

• 4×6: $0.12
• 5×7: $0.49
• 8×10: $1.99
• Shipping: $2.49.

Summary: easy to use but no options.

Smugmug (via EzPrints)

I use Smugmug to post my pictures online and do enjoy their site. I never tried their print services, mainly because I want to sharpen my pictures before printing, but this would not look good for web display. In any case, I just uploaded the test pictures (unsharpened) to a gallery and proceeded to order.

The ordering process was very nicely done; you can easily select the size, paper type, whether to crop or not, and whether to do automatic color correction or not. The only thing missing is borders. Profiles can be found in the forums.

The prints get a bit expensive at larger sizes but the common ones are reasonable:

• 4×6: $0.19
• 5×7: $0.99
• 8×10: $2.99
• Shipping: $2.95

Overall the nicest web experience of all the places tested.

AdoramaPix

I’ve used Adorama in the past to order photo equipment, and their photo printing service is nicely done, with many options available. Profiles for their different papers are readily downloadable, and you can have multiple jobs per order (to select different paper types, for example).

Borders are available, as well as no-cropping options (‘full frame’); Adorama can optionally color correct your pictures (by a human, apparently), and there are several different ways of tagging the backside of the print (for example, with the job name).

Pricing is very good, and I used the initial 25 free pictures offer by also trying out the luster and metallic finishes.

• 4×6: $0.15
• 5×7: $0.35
• 8×10: $1.99
• Shipping: $4.95!

I did like all the options that the Adorama site gives you. Well done.

Snapfish

Snapfish claims to have very low cost prints, and I was intrigued since some online review rated them highly for quality. The site looked familiar since it is the same front-end that Costco uses for their online prints. Options are straightforward (glossy or matte paper) and I was happy to see several kind of borders available (white, black, and white torn).

Pricing is very low for the 4×6” size, and you get 20 free prints the first time you sign-up:

• 4×6: $0.09
• 5×7: $0.79
• 8×10: $2.99
• Shipping: $1.97

Remember that shipping rates could vary depending on the print job quantity (like with Snapfish) .

In the next article I’ll discuss the quality of the prints received.